UK leader Starmer is facing flak for taking freebies. He says he's done nothing wrong

LONDON (AP) — Less than three months after he was elected on a promise to restore trust in politics, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is trying to shake off criticism over donations from a wealthy businessman and the hefty salary of his most senior aide.

The Labour Party leader, who won power in a landslide victory on July 4, denies impropriety over thousands of pounds (dollars) worth of clothes and eyeglasses paid for by Waheed Alli, a media entrepreneur and longtime Labour donor.

Starmer is also facing grumbling among his own employees over the salary of chief of staff Sue Gray. The BBC disclosed that she is paid 170,000 pounds ($225,000) a year — about 3,000 pounds more than the prime minister's salary.

Gray’s salary is at the top of a set of pay bands for political advisers, which have been raised since the election. The government said it did not interfere in setting the pay scale.

“The pay bands for any official, any adviser, are not set by politicians. There’s an official process that does that,” Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Thursday.

In recent days British media have been full of largely anonymous grumbling from government officials about Gray, a former senior civil servant best known for leading an investigation into lockdown-breaching parties in government buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gray’s findings helped topple Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and her subsequent move to work for Starmer led the Conservatives to claim the “partygate” probe was politically biased, something Gray denies.

Labour claims the leak of Gray’s salary and the donation revelations -– branded “frockgate” in the press after dresses bought for the prime minister’s wife, Victoria Starmer -- is being whipped up by the Conservatives and their media...